Taxes Made Simple: Income Taxes Explained in 100 Pages or Less

by Mike Piper

Find all of the following, explained in plain-English with no legal
The difference between deductions and credits
Itemized deductions vs. the standard deduction
Several money-saving deductions and credits and how to make sure you qualify for them
How to calculate your refund
How to know which tax forms to fill out
State income taxes
Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT)
Capital Gains and Losses

Genres: Finance, Business, Personal Finance, Taxation, Nonfiction, Economics, Money

122 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Cristian]

Crisp primer on US taxes, great for learning the language of your tax advisor, not a substitute for hiring professional help

[Karen]

A great blend of succinct and in-depth. If you tried wading through any J. K. Lasser tome on taxes and had immense trouble with it like I did, pick up this book instead. And while a lot of the info might not apply to you in the moment (child tax credit when you have no kids) or be out-of-date, the information is still useful and very aptly explained in the examples Piper provides. I did wish for a little more time spent on defining terms, like "capital" when referring to gains/losses, and "adjusted gross income". I eventually figured out what both were, but have them defined early on, along with all the other terminology, would have made the book even better, in my view. Regardless, it does what it says in around 100 pages, and you can't go wrong with that.

[Ronald]

Picked up this book to get a general overview on how taxes work. Did not disappoint. This book was short, to the point, and did not play around. I respect that it was purely educational and the simple phrasing and examples made everything easy to understand. I really like the book, and recommend it to anyone who wants to do their own taxes or wants to learn more about taxes in general. It doesn't cover all the possible deductions and credits that one may get, but it has enough for us to get a good grasp of how the system works.

[Nayef Kazzaz]

Read it if you are a beginner as a startup book

If you are someone "new" to the American system it is a good place to start specially if your income is not one of the high brackets. I think as a single below 70k and 130 k as married. Specially if you don't have a complex situation.

[Gmguerin]

Quick read

Mr. Piper did an excellent job of describing all the variables and options for those who have a lower income with circumstances. Perhaps he encouraged having someone else do the paperwork for you a bit too much, and glossed over collecting all the necessary information before anyone starts, but hey--he kept it simple.

[Allison Jo]

Excellent!

This book does a fantastic job of breaking down a complex subject into easy-to-understand chunks.

I just took a week long course on taxes and this book perfectly summarized everything I learned.

Great for tax newbies such as myself or anyone looking for a refresher on the basics.

Highly recommend!

[cristian]

Amazing and to the point!

As someone who knows nothing about our tax system, I'm very thankful for finding this book. It was short, to the point, and the examples provided to demonstrate how the math works for certain things were unbelievably simple. I have already recommended it to friends and family!

[Taraqul I Khan]

Not worth it

The book keeps to the 100 pages or less but the content contained may just be common sense for some. I was hoping to learn something from this book, but unfortunately there is not enough content to actually learn anything. Next step for me is to read a tax book with more content in it.

[Ibrahim Hammad]

Very nicely written

This is an easy to read book that explains the basics of taxes. It does not go into the details of deductions and credits but gives a very short answer to most of the questions.

[Nathalie]

Very easy to read and understand. Quick explanation of taxes, credits and deductions. I would recommend this book to any person who want to start learning about filing taxes, but this is not an advanced book, if you want to become a specialist or something, look elsewhere.

[Tobby Mathew]

Simple easy to read

Just what I needed! Good overview on taxes!
Definitely worth reading and will recommend to others. He breaks it down very well

[Oleksandr]

Very simple and easy to understand

Very basic information, easy to understand though I think it’s Not enough to do your taxes on your own. Thanks to the author for simplicity

[BENJAMIN J]

Basic Tax Review

Simple and easy to understand. This should be a first read for those unfamiliar with taxes. As stated in the book, it does not go into more advanced topics.

[Dale Grauman]

Very helpful and straightforward. After reading this, I am more confident that I will be able to do my taxes myself, especially since I have relatively simple needs.

[roundface]

Highly recommend to whom whats to have a basic idea about personal income tax. Easy to understand and the book covers almost all you need to know if you are a taxpayer with basic sources of income.

[Spencer Emmett]

Great introductory text to the basics of tax preparation that can be read in just a couple hours but referenced over a lifetime.

[Vijal]

Worth reading once. I filed taxes on my own for the first time last year and learned a lot that way. I didn't realize I knew much until the book. I did learn a couple new things though.

[Paul Montoy-wilson]

Great quick read on understanding taxes.

[Caleb]

Exactly what I wanted. This book gave me a brief overview of taxes that will help me understand the broad strokes of the system.

[Brandon]

Good overview of taxation basics, defining the important terms and making doing your own taxes look less daunting.

[Alejandro]

Good way to learn the basics about taxes. Eye opener, but def need more info if you plan on doing in on deductions but great starter to get the overall ideas.

[Cyrus Samii]

Clear intro to deductions, credits, and other tax basics, for complete novices like myself. I now feel like I am in a much better position in advance of tax preparation with my accountant.

[Jeremy Roberts]

Good, succinct overview

Solid little overview book on U.S. taxes. A good foundation of you do your own taxes with tax software or want to have a basic idea of how it works.

[JS]

Good concise overview.

[Adam L]

Great overview of how the tax system works in the USA. Everyone should take the 2 hours to read this book and better understand taxes.

[Tyler Sheehy]

Good tax info for beginners. Should’ve read it before my tax class 😆

[Siraaj Weatherspoon]

Great read for an intro to taxes

This is a great book on the ins and outs of tax preparation. It’s an easy read on the basics of taxes.

[Angel De Paz]

Very great Tax book! If you don't anything about taxes this is where you should start! It catches you quickly on Exemptions, Above the line deductions, Below the line deductions (Standard vs Itemized), and credits etc. etc. It also gives lots of info about what Tax Brackets are and how they work. Of course if you want updated numbers for filing in 2018 then you can always look them up online or in an updated tax book like I did.

[B___y__g]

Preparing to try a tax software this year and this book explains the terms.

[Mike Harris]

Excellent coverage of most of what people need to do their taxes in the US. The examples are easy to follow, realistic, and to the point. At a little less than 100 pages it did not cover everything for me but I have medium level complexity in my taxes (by my own design).

I think this book would greatly help those of less means discover all the different tax breaks they can take advantage of in the US tax code.